Samsung retakes top spot in U.S. smartphone market from May to March

Samsung Electronics retook the smartphone market in the U.S. from March through May, while the sales of the Galaxy S8 were not as strong as those of the Galaxy S7.

Kantar Worldpanel, a European market survey company, said on Wednesday (local time), “Samsung Electronics had a market share of 36.2 percent in the U.S. for three months ending in May, a 3.3-percent-point increase from the previous period.” Apple’s market share was 34 percent. Samsung’s share fell 1.1 percentage point year-on-year while Apple’s rose 4.7 percentage points. Samsung lost the top position in the U.S. market to Apple in the third quarter of last year due to the battery problem of the Galaxy Note 7.

Apple’s iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus ranked first and second in sales, respectively. Samsung Galaxy S7 came as the third and the S8 the fourth. “The release of the S8 helped it regain the market share to some extent, but it fell short of expectations," Kantar Worldpanel said.

Sung-Gyu Kim sunggyu@donga.com